The first few days of this challenge were great. I was cashing fairly deep in tournaments, making money, loving life. Then Rush Poker came. The smallest limit wasn't low enough to play with proper bankroll management, but I played anyways. It seemed like every blogger was winning big money, so I felt compelled to play. I lost. Then lost some more.

I created a spreadsheet for this challenge (which you'll have to click to read):

Date played, type of poker/buy-in, how many hands I played, win/loss, notes, and finally a 1-10 self-rating of my play. Undisciplined play and distractions place all the blame squarely on my shoulders for the loss in bankroll.

I was hoping this challenge would turn me into a stone-cold killer on the virtual felt. Instead, I've realized that I'm not cut out for it. I played a lot of home games over the past two months and I've cashed nearly every time while having a blast with friends. When I've played online over the past two months I have usually been wishing I was outside doing something else. I also didn't play a few tournaments because I wanted to be available should something more fun come along.

Looking forward to seeing others' results roll in over the next few days. I completely forgot about posting this until I saw Jordo's crappy post.

I should have all the side bets tabulated by the end of the week, assuming you all post some screen shots!

I'm about break even now online since the challenge started. I've also been slacking on tournaments so it's time for one last run. I entered Pokerstars' 80 grand sunday special to try to take down HighOnPoker's record. Starts in 5 minutes, let's see if I can run good.

OK, I'm not dead, but I'm fairly certain my hunt for the gold in this challenge is... After my monster ass whooping at the hands of rush I took some time off. I played the mook last week (8th place, killed off on a flip with Heff, who I think made it to 3rd on my chips :) but other than that, I hadn't touched poker in 2 1/2 weeks. Last night I finally fired up a few 50NL tables, and felt the old fire come back. Just in time for a serious buttload of work hitting my office. I will most likely be buried for the next 2 to 3 weeks, and I doubt I'll be playing much, if any poker at all. This economy is killing my company, and I need to get things moving here again.

I played some PLO at the $10 rush tables last night. My god folks are bad at that limit. Which is fine with me, as I've never played PLO before, but it seems pretty obvious to me what good and bad starting hands are. And most of the time a simple cbet will take down any flop you miss... I can't believe how quickly people chuck their cards if they don't hit the flop. It's a fun game, but I don't know that I'm ready to trade in NL just yet.

So... my BR is down to a pathetic $2300. My plan is to grind back up to around 3k or so and give 100NL a shot, which, barring variance should be no real problem. I just need to stay away from the crack rush tables and 2 outers :) On the challenge front, I'm considering myself pretty much done, unless I get a few minutes to jump into a donkfest or 2 in the next few days before shit really starts piling on.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Alright you bastards, time to get serious. I'm taking this thing down while watching prime-time TV and hoping Georgetown takes out Syracuse (seeing how many people I can piss off with this post, CK, hard feelings).

6,000 Runners at the tip off, sure to be closer to 10,000 by the time registration closes. A one-dollar gang bang. I don't envy Lady Luck tonight.

Hand 1: Start off the night with 82o in the cut off. Intend on raising, but douche before me raises a limper 6xBB. Fold reluctantly.

Hand 2: A6o in MP, UTG raises 6xBB, fold.

Syracuse is up 49 to 33 in the second half with 16 minutes left. Rautins needs to stop hitting three pointers if Georgetown has any hope 52-33.

Hand 3: 93o, fold to 7xBB raise in front of me.

Hand 4: K7o, open fold +1UTG.

Not even a cool Guinness in a "Mother Knows Best" mug is going to save me from ranting tonight.

Hand 5: K3o UTG, fold.

I will dip below or above my starting stack on the next hand... BB special?!?!

Hand 6: J4hh, suited baby!!! UTG+1 min raises, gets one caller, hijack min-re-raises, SB calls, I call with my HEARTS, UTG+1 Min-re-re-raises and gets four callers... oh baby tonight is going to be fun. Flop is all diamonds and I fold to a continuation pot-sized bet by Mr. Min-Re-raise.

Hand 7: 84o, complete in the SB with 3 others and the BB. Flop checks around K53, turn another 3 and Late position guy bets 300 into an 80 chip pot. Fold.

Hand 8: AJo on the button! limper from EP, Min-raiser min-raises, four callers including me. K74. Some guy bets 1/2 pot and I call loose, as does Mr. Min-reraiser. We check the 7 on the turn. I bet the Ace on the river (420, just shy of the pot) and don't get a caller. Up to 3250

Hand 9: AQo in the cutoff! MP guy bets 70 (3.5BB), I raise to 220 in the Cut-off. Blinds fold and the original raiser calls. KK6 rainbow flop, he checks and I bet another 420, he calls. We check the 5 turn. 4 on the river and he bets the 1310 pot. I make a hero call with my A-hi, because I confuse this guy with Mr. Min-Re-Raise. He shows TT and I'm down to 1300.

Hand 13: AKo, UTG+1, open-raise to 105 or 3.5BB. Called from MP. Min-re-raised by Mr. Min-ReRaise, BB calls, I go all-in for 1300. MP guy folds, Mr. Min-re-raise calls my push, BB calls as well. They both get it all in on the JT3 rainbow flop. They both have AJo and end up splitting my chips.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I'm in a really good mood right now. My bankroll's taken a hit in the last few weeks. I guess I can't win every day but at least I'm still above break even since the challenge started. I'm also slacking on the tournaments only having played three so far. There was one min cash for about $20, but of course, this is all not why I'm in such a great mood.

I made the final table of event 34 in the LA Poker Classic series at Commerce. I'll be coming to the table 3rd in chips today when the action resumes. If anybody wants to follow I'll be posting @holecardsrwild on twitter. We start again 3:30 PT.

When a tournament is cancelled, and players have already reached the money, we refund each player their tournament fee, and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula:

- each player receives the minimum prize not yet awarded at the time of cancellation- the remainder of the award pool distributed proportionally according to the chip count

At the time of cancellation there were 34 players remaining, and your chip count was 63,155.00. Total chips in play were 2,517,000.00. The remaning prize pool was USD 2,026.82 and the minimum prize was USD 10.82.

Monday, February 15, 2010

The last few weeks have been so so busy. Work is nutty, three feet of snow have fallen in DC, the kids have been out of school over a week and a half now, I'm sick.. and really haven't done anything worth writing about - until today.

I went from 6K in chips at 1K/2K/125 with two tables left - to winning four straight all-ins with the best of it every time to take the chip lead to the final table. I only lost two more hands after that and finally got heads up, but with only 30-odd blinds in play, we just chopped it 50-50.

I would have played it out, but I realized first wouldn't have beaten Jordan's tourney win last month. I guess I have 13 more days to try one more time and bink it out of there.

Amusingly enough, this finally puts me back in black for the Challenge after two weeks of run bad/play worse. Perhaps the worm is turning.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Been sitting out a bit lately. Carefully worked my way back up to 3400 plying 50NL 6max. Then I did it again... waaaaaay too tired - had been up for 48 hrs on a job, had a beer, dropped 600 bucks in a matter of minutes. The very next night I was feeling ok, but got coolered for another $200. Since then, I've been taking a much needed break, have barely logged on in a week.

For whatever reason, I can't seem to get the rush thing going. The variance is completely killing me, and I have to assume I'm not playing it optimally. I was doing well at 6 max, had a good system going to check my leaks, was learning a ton. Now I just feel like crap after $800 losses multiple times. I'm off Rush for now, gonna try to get back to where I was before I started playing it. Also have a few MTTs I'm gonna try out, see if I can't unseat Mr. Cocky. Not expecting much, as I haven't been playing tourneys lately, but hey, maybe I can get as lucky as Hoy :P

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Get home tired and crabby. Play rush 50NL while eating dinner. Getting nowhere, and feeling really tired. Fire up a 100NL table. Go up and down for a while, double up and think about quitting, as it really feels like I can't get it together. Getting re-raised a ton, missing flops, not catching anything remotely playable, folding way too easily, the usual signs that my heart just isn't in it and I should get some sleep. Fold AA to a fish that I later find out is a TOTAL fish. I lost the bare minimum there. I'm still not sure it was a bad laydown, but I definitely should have bet the flop. Get in a coin flip with another dude with AA again and lose. Drop precipitously down to -200, work some of it back and finally sit out -130. I should know better. I need to bring my A game to 100NL (or any limit for that matter).

Saw Fuel a few times during the session. Grabbed $5 from him when he got in the way of my fish from above and I rr them both out of the BB. Later I sat out (the only way you can watch a hand in progress in Rush) and watched him flop a set of 5's from the button and stack some other poor schmoe who never saw it coming. Good times.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

It appears that we are halfway through the SBC. Who knows? I'm too busy racking up the big wins and making MHG cry to pay attention to such minor details.

Since I am such a magnanimous guy, I have decided to offer mercy on my fellow SBC players. I am now willing to consider 50% buy-outs of all prop bets. If you think there is no chance you will beat my amazingness, simply let me know and if agreed, I will accept a 50% payout. If I win, you don't pay. If I don't win...well, let's be honest. That isn't going to happen. BUT if I don't win, then the bet is over anyway, so you get nothing from me.

Now, some of you might be asking yourself, "Self, why would I take such an offer?" The answer is simple. You like your money. Take the discount, ladies. It's the smart economical decision.

Monday, February 1, 2010

No kudos for Jordan. Not now, not ever! Well, maybe when the challenge ends (and only if his tallies hold up). I regret inviting him into the challenge. I knew he'd screw things up for me.

Okay, okay, rant over.

Halfway point and my top secret scores will stay top secret. You can take that to mean I've lost half my bankroll and have no scores worthy of posting... or you can take it to mean my scores make Jordan's look like chump change. Your call.

Rush poker is bullshit. That, and FT needs a smaller buy-in Rush Poker so I don't lose my entire bankroll in the next week.

Because everyone picked me for largest score (awwwwww, that's sweet), it's going to come down to % gained and slayer of donkeys. It looks like Jordan is the man to beat in all categories, which puts Meanhappyguy at a significant disadvantage.

BLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH! Dug myself a nice $800 hole early in the week, knuckled down and ground it out to almost even playing 50NL, then flushed it all away Sunday night playing 100NL again. I'm running super terrible at 100NL - I got set over set twice, rivered a bunch of times blah blah blah, whine whine whine. My BR was padded by a nice fat rakeback deposit, so I'm actually doing worse than it looks here. Just gonna keep going, concentrate on 50NL and try to grind back to where I was. On a good note, 1K is the most I've ever made in a month, and if I had been running close to EV it would have been almost 2k (yep, I'm running THAT bad for the month).